Eventually, 10 months elapsed, and I feared it would never be repaired or – more likely – had disintegrated entirely when someone snipped the first exploratory stitch. Then, miracle of miracles, a cardboard box arrived and inside was my jacket looking… well, not new, but as if it had suffered five years’ hard wear rather than 30.
When I speak later on the phone to Denny, who “operates a sewing machine and sweeps the floor” on top of his managerial role, he explains Aero jackets are designed to be repaired. They don’t glue the leather so seams can be unpicked and they use wide-spaced stitches to minimise tearing. Most repairs just involve relining or replacing zips, though this was a rebuild.
“I had to use some techniques we’d never tried before,” Denny says. “The rips in the arm and shoulder were jagged and worn – one of them was like a bullet hole – so when I patched them inside, the edges didn’t match up. I went online and found some leather filler which I’d never used before and experimented on some scraps before trying it on your jacket, but I’m pleased with the results.” Indeed, the mends are invisible.
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